FAIR PAY FOR FIRST SOUTH WEST BUS WORKERS

RMT members working on First South West buses in Somerset, and Cornwall are continuing with 24-hour strike action for better pay and conditions. First Group workers are angry that many of them are only paid just over £11 and hour and that bosses only offered a small uprate to £12 an hour over an 18-month period. Yet the company paid out £500 million to shareholders in 2021/22 and has an operating profit of £226 million. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that such key transport workers were being treated abysmally by a highly profitable company that could easily pay them a decent wage. “It is in the public interest in Somerset, Cornwall and across the country to see bus workers paid well so people do not leave the industry creating chronic shortages in bus services. “We urge First Group to come to a negotiated settlement with the RMT and we continue our industrial campaign until we achieve pay justice,” he said. RMT was left with no other option than to commence an industrial action of its First South West members following the refusal of the company to offer an acceptable pay award as part of the 2022 pay negotiations. Following a series of meetings, the company tabled the following derisory offer, which included moving the pay anniversary date to next August to save the company even more money, but this was rejected by RMT members. The company’s intransigence on pay was all the more galling for members struggling with a crippling cost-of-living crisis to learn that First Group continues its financial success story. The company’s latest accounts show that during the first year of the pandemic, First South West made a profit before tax of £3.5 million, which is double the year before. FirstBus (South) Ltd the immediate parent company made a profit of £23.4 million in the same year. The owning company First Group PLC made a profit from its bus business of £45m last year, an increase of nearly £10m from the year before. Moreover, the CEO of First Group took home a pay packet of more than £2 million last year. RMT remains determined to achieve a just and fair award for its members, and it is obvious that from the above that it is easily affordable for the company. The union remains available for negotiations at any stage to resolve this dispute, but it demands Fair Pay for First South West. RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 ::november/december2022 :: RMTnews 9 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 ::november/december2022 :: RMTnews FAIR PAY FOR FIRST SOUTH WEST BUS WORKERS Bus workers take strike action in Cornwall and Somerset over pay